Abstract
Reviewed by: Buxin Han, Key Lab of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
It was a great pleasure to read this new book, Developmental Psychology (Ludlow & Gutierrez, 2014). Like many other readers, I enjoy learning about concepts, theories, and knowledge structures that have accumulated over the centuries. Audiences who are experts in developmental psychology might enjoy, as I did, reading about the history of the field.
The book is also a good starting point for newcomers to psychology (e.g. lay persons interested in psychology, A-level or high school students trying to select their college major, or undergraduates struggling to make decisions about their semester coursework). As a concise, systematic introduction to developmental psychology, the book is a quick, worthwhile read that gets to the point directly without being bogged down in history, disputes, and the details of research design and data collection. As with any textbook of this type, you will learn about the classic figures (e.g. Freud, Piaget, Erikson, Vygotsky, etc.) and their theoretical interpretations of developmental psychology. You will also learn about the latest advancements in the field, such as behavioral genetic studies on autism spectrum disorders.
The book begins with an outline of its content (Chapter 1). Theories of development are introduced for both normal (Chapter 2) and pathological (Chapter 10) psychology. After a briefing on methodological issues (Chapter 3), concepts and theories related to the phenomenon of mental development are briefly but systematically discussed with regard to biology (Chapter 4); cognition and language (Chapters 5 and 6, respectively); emotion (Chapter 7); morality (Chapter 8); communication (Chapter 6); and social learning (Chapter 9). In terms of logic and completeness, the book is comparable to any other textbook (long or short) of its kind.
The design of the book’s teaching procedure is user-friendly, especially for newcomers to psychology. The reader can easily identify key concepts and theories through the text boxes that appear before the main text and the summaries provided afterwards. The most important concepts are also listed in the glossary with concise definitions. In addition, tables and figures are carefully selected to help readers intuitively understand the text.
I was pleased to see that this book was written in the UK by two British developmental psychologists (Amanda Ludlow and Roberto Gutierrez), typeset in India, printed in China, and published in England. Psychology, as both a profession and a discipline, is experiencing a process of global integration. Developmental psychology – as suggested by the above-noted production process for this book – is apparently evolving in the same way. Some of my colleagues in China have published good studies on theory of mind (e.g. Jing, Liu, & Zhu, 2011); mental health status of left-behind children in rural areas in the process of urbanization (e.g. Liu, Li, & Ge, 2009); creative thinking (e.g. Duan, Zhou, & Shi, 2012); schizophrenia (e.g. Zhao, Li, Huang, Yan, Dazzan, Pantelis, et al, 2014), etc. To my knowledge, all of these studies are worthy of being cited in a textbook such as this one. This would certainly help to make developmental psychology less WEIRD (i.e. Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic; Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010) in the twenty-first century.
The concise nature of the book means that the authors neglect some important areas, such as the lifespan theory of development, intelligence, and so forth. Intelligence, which is a key issue in developmental psychology, is not clearly discussed.
Development is a lifelong process that involves more than just childhood. The authors of Developmental Psychology take a traditional approach, assuming that the field mainly concerns child psychology. However, the psychology of ageing is undoubtedly a key part of the developmental process. Therefore, it would be advisable to allow room for the psychology of older adults in future editions. We live in ageing societies and an ageing world. It would be a good idea for the publisher’s website (www.palgrave.com/insights) to list some more substantial textbooks (e.g. Feldman, 2011; Santrock, 2012) that discuss lifespan development theory for further reading, including those covering the most exciting advancements in developmental psychology.